Travis Brown

Travis Brown, lobbyist and advisor to Rex Sinquefield, wins this one running away. 

Spread the word:

But we believe the proposal [to replace Missouri's income tax with a much higher, more expansive sales tax] would be a disruptive and potentially dangerous tax shift, putting more of the burden on lower-income and middle-income residents.

It would lead to a dramatic increase in the state sales tax -- capping it at 7 percent (compared to the current rate of 4.225 percent).

It would lead to a much broader set of goods and services being subject to the sales tax -- chief among them, would be a sales tax on food that could be as high as 5.5 percent.

It could starve state government of needed money -- with critical implications for education funding and a host of other important programs.

And it would limit the ability of local governments to raise money as it would cap the total sales tax at 10 percent. That will inevitably put more pressure on governments to turn to the property tax as a source of revenue.

Image credit: Southwest Missouri Magazine

Sinquefield and his lackeys have made Art Laffer's alleged expertise a centerpiece in their campaign to devastate Missouri's public systems and structures

Berger's Beat reacts to today's big story in the Columbia Tribune: 

When you’re the noted Reaganomics guru, Arthur Laffer, it must be humiliating when a reporter from a mid-sized Missouri newspaper busts you in the Sunday paper for using incorrect data to promote benefactor Rex Sinquefield’s viewpoint.  That’s just what [Columbia Tribune] statehouse bulldog Rudi Keller did this weekend.  Laffer and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annually produce a jointly-branded report on “Economic Opportunity Outlook” of the states...

Keller did some digging and found Laffer overstated Missouri’s marginal personal income tax rate as 7 percent instead of the correct figure, 6 percent.  The result was to make Missouri rank worse than Tennessee. 

The folks at Pelopidas and Let Voters Decide continue to insist that Tennessee is a "no income tax" state as part of their campaign for Rex Sinquefield's diastrous Everything Tax.  But the talking point just isn't true.  

Tennessee does have an individual income tax, as you can see at this Tennessee Department of Revenue page titled, "Individual Income Tax."  And regardless, Sinquefield isn't proposing a Tennessee-style tax system -- he's pushing a  far more radical and devastating proposal. 

Auditor Tom Schweich boldly announced today that he's not going to try to help Missouri voters understand the cost of Rex Sinquefield's sales tax hike proposals.  The closest he came to providing an honest assessment of Rex's plans was to say that he can't "predict that the petitions will have little or no fiscal impact on the state."  Impressive stuff, right there.

Sinquefield helped get Schweich elected and has made huge contributions the Republicans around Schweich, of course, so perhaps this isn't all that surprising.  It's also not surprising that Sinquefield's hired guns in Jefferson City were quick to tweet out the news of Schweich's big punt. 

Lobbyist Travis Brown, Sinquefield's top lobbyist and Speaker Steve Tilley business partner:

And unethical hack Carl Bearden, a Sinquefield lobbyist and director of the Sinquefield-funded "United for Missouri" organizations:

Any questions?

Despite Schweich's punt on the issue, Missourians have plenty of research to know how devastating Rex's plans would be.  Last year, the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Tax Policy found that the 7% cap on sales taxes would be far from revenue neutral, and would have to be much higher if a prebate program was instituted.  

We also have the recent analysis of Sinquefield's petitions by Jim Moody, a lobbyist who used to be Governor John Ashcroft's Commissioner of Administration, who found that Rex's plans would "bankrupt the state, or in the alternative, bankrupt the poor and the working lower and middle income classes."  GOP gubernatorial candidate Peter Kinder cited Moody's research in his explanation for why he isn' t endorsing Rex's plans (this year, any way). 

And the Missouri Budget Project and Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy have determined that a sales tax rate with a prebate program would need to be close to 11% to be revenue neutral.  

UPDATE:  To clarify -- nine petitions have been filed with different language, but none of them will be on a ballot until they've been approved and the requisite number of signatures have been gathered. 

For your reading pleasure, here are the nine initiative petitions filed by Rex Sinquefield's team on Friday, as scanned by the Secretary of State's office. 

• Version 1
• Version 2
• Version 3
• Version 4
• Version 5
• Version 6
• Version 7
• Version 8
• Version 9

Travis Brown, Rex Sinquefield's top lobbyist and a business partner of Speaker Steve Tilley, tells Politico's Dave Catanese that their sales tax increase proposal will be filed with the Secretary of State tomorrow.

POLITICO has learned that Jefferson City lobbyist Travis Brown and wealthy conservative investor Rex Sinquefield will submit the initial paperwork for their dramatic plan to revise the state's tax system to the Secretary of State Friday.

Their initiative outlines nine different ways to eliminate the state's 6 percent income tax and replace it with a sales tax that does not exceed 7 percent.

Not that this proposal caps the rate at 7%, which presumably means that it does not include the "prebate" scheme that some acolytes had discussed as a way to make the plan slightly less regressive.  This cap is even lower than the official Senate estimate put forward last year, "around 7.5 to 8 percent."  When legislators talked about adding a "prebate," the sales tax rate was "closer to 11 percent."

There's a new addition to the staff for Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer: Mark Tucker, the Majority Caucus' new Policy Director.  In Mayer's press release announcing his leadership team, Tucker is blandly described as someone who "comes from the private sector." What the press release doesn't say is that he was a register lobbyist until last week.  For whom?  Two firms with direct ties to Rex Sinquefield, who just happens to have a few wish list items in the hopper for the upcoming session. 

Tucker first joined the Sinquefield team of lobbyists in 2007, and lobbied directly for Sinquefield though July 2010.  When he officially ended his lobbying on Thursday, December 30, his three clients were Sinquefield's Pelopidas, LLC,  the lobby shop of Travis Brown (another Sinquefield lobbyist), and The Avery Group, LLC. 

KMBC's Michael Mahoney:

Jefferson City lobbyist Travis Brown testified for about [40] minutes today before a federal grand jury investigating how the Missouri Legislature does business, according to Brown’s attorney Steve Hill.

Hill says Brown talked to grand jury for “about 40 minutes”. Brown made no comment to reporters after his testimony and left [the] Federal Courthouse quickly, escorted by his lawyer.

Brown is believed to have been the lobbyists for a group of adult business in 2006.

Brown has a number of high-profile lobbying clients in Jefferson City, including conservative financier Rex Sinquefield.  Brown is also a business partner with House Majority Leader Steve Tilley (R-Perryville). The pair own in Mid Missouri Aviation LLC, a "Columbia-based company that owns a six-seat turboprop plane." 

Implicit in the debate about whether legislators should end their practice of accepting meals and gifts from lobbyists are the assumptions that (1) it gives lobbyists unfair access to legislators (2) lawmakers could be tempted to return the favor with an official action of some kind.

I think these are fair concerns, and would vote to limit lobbyist gifts and meals if I could. At the same time, I don't understand the logic behind limiting such relatively small bits of support while ignoring enormous shows of support that come in the form of campaign checks.

Majority Leader Steve Tilley – who's pushing a lobbyist gift ban at no real cost to himself, and hoping this whole discussion distracts attention from his own questionable actions – says he was inspired to stop taking free meals after talking with his dad and deciding that taking lobbyist meals "sure looks bad." 

If enjoying a lobbyist-purchased hamburger "sure looks bad" – then what does a $100,000 check from Rex Sinquefield or $100,000 check from a Tom Burcham-controlled PAC look like?  Or what does it look like when a legislator co-owns an airplane and business with Rex Sinquefield's lobbyist, with undisclosed profit- and resource-sharing agreements? 

The Turner Report has the scoop on Majority Leader Steve Tilley's ethics reform legislation to be officially announced today. As outlined by Turner, Tilley says he wants to stop:

• Lobbyist gifts and meals for legislatures
• Political consulting while serving in the legislature
• Becoming a lobbyist within 180 days of leaving office
• Prohibition on accepting political contributions for any compensated appointment made by the governor, speaker of the House, or speaker pro tempore of the Senate that requires Senate approval for a period before and after the appointment
• The appointment of legislators to executive department positions within 180 days of leaving office
• Any political donations being made to the governor by any entity that has a pending decision before an executive department or decision making body

And wants "full disclosure" of:

• All members, spouses, and staff of any political employment
• Any financial interest of any general assembly, executive, or statewide offices, including staff and contract agents (though it's not really clear what that means yet)

Tilley is the subject of scrutiny for the way he raises money and runs the House, his very close ties to Rod Jetton, his huge special interest campaign contributions, his ownership of an airplane and business with Rex Sinquefield lobbyist Travis Brown, and questionable actions that benefited friend and financier Tom Burcham.

The Star's Steve Kraske reports that embattled House Majority Leader Steve Tilley will propose a "sweeping ethics package" this year. 

Tilley proposed a sweeping ethics package that would ban all gifts to lawmakers. The law would also ban lawmakers from immediately becoming lobbyists and prohibit the practice, first employed by [former Speaker Rod] Jetton, of political consulting while in office.

It seems to me that a truly "sweeping" ethics reform package would include a ban on House Majority Leaders co-owning airplanes with lobbyists.